500 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1700. 



Descrifjlion cle la Piece d Ambregris que la Chambre cT Amsterdam a refue des 

 Indes Orientales, pesanl 182 Livres ; avec un petit Traitc de son Origine et 

 de sa yerlu, par Nicolas Chevalier, a Amsterdam chez CAuteur. 1 700. 4to. 

 N° 2(33, p. 573. 



The Dutch East Iiuli.i company presented the author of this treatise with 

 the plates they had caused to be engraven of the piece of ambergris which they 

 had frum the East Indies, of 182 pounds weight, 1 6 ounces to each pound. 

 In the preface he mentions and figures a medal made on this occasion. About 

 the figure of the piece of ambergris on this medal is this inscription, Occultum 

 Naturae ac nobile Doron. Under it, Fragmen. Ambr. Grys. Librar. 182. Hue 

 Allat. 1694. On the reverse is Amsterdam, and its port, with 2 fleets, one 

 entering, another setting sail, about which is this inscription, Sibi et Urbi, 

 and under it, Vivant Dii Mei Penates. 



Part of a Letter from Mr. James Cuningham, from the Cape of Good Hope, 

 April Q, 1700, giving an Account of his Observations on the Thermometer 

 and Magnetic Needle in his Voyage thither. N° 2()4, p. 077. 



The greatest height of the spirit in the thermometer was 2 divisions 

 below extreme heat, when we were near the equinoctial. And 2 degrees to the 

 northward of the line, the north point of the needle inclined 8 degrees down- 

 ward, but as we went to the southward it was inclined about 48 degrees 

 upward. 



Of an Accident by Thunder and Lightning at Leeds. By Mr. Ralph Tkoresby. 



F.R.S. N°264, p. 577. 



April 27^ in the evening, we had a severe storm of thunder and lightning. 

 One clap was particularly loud, and very near us, as appeared by the effects, 

 which, though not fatal, are remarkable ; for falling on a cottage, it broke 

 down part of the chamber chimney, and thence made its way through a chink 

 in the floor to the lower room, where it melted several holes in two pewter 

 dishes; it melted also, and run into little lumps, several places in a pewter candle- 

 stick, and of a brass mortar ; it burnt also some holes in a tin vessel, and 

 smutted a white stone plate it stood upon, as if it had been with lamp-black, 

 and filled the room with such a bituminous smell, like fired gunpowder, as 

 almost stifled the poor woman, who was alone in the house. A more fatal 

 accident happened in this neighbourhood formerly, of which the parish register 



